NFL, Army team up to fight TBI

Parts of their brains are slowly dying as TBI victims walk around looking okay. Traumatic brain injury (TBI) after a concussion has few symptoms and can last for days before it is discovered. By then, it’s too late. Brain damage is permanent.

Victims don’t realize their brains are seeping blood that is killing brain tissue after a concussion on the playing field or the battle field. Players can get TBI following a concussion after a hard hit in a game. Soldiers can get concussions after shock waves hit them from IED explosions traveling up to 300 miles an hour. Mortars and shrapnel can cause TBI after a concussion too, even if a soldier doesn’t take a direct hit.

So last August, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and Army Chief of Staff Gen. Ray Odierno sat down at WestPoint with soldiers and players who had suffered concussions to talk about defeating their common enemy. The discussion focused on research, prevention and treatment. During the meeting, Odierno and Goodell signed a pledge to continue sharing information and raising awareness about TBI:

What do doctors know about TBI right now? What more needs to be discovered? And what needs to be done to make players and soldiers aware of the danger so they will get treatment?

The last part may seem like the easiest – making soldiers and players aware of TBI and getting them into treatment. But it could be the toughest. It runs counter to the football and military cultures that keep soldiers and players in the fight to win. But the struggle with TBI isn’t fair. It takes advantage of the best qualities soldiers and players need to win.

Both are taught they are part of a team. Both know the team comes first. Both hate the shame of complaining. So they shrug off slight symptoms or loved ones’ comments about changes in their behavior to stay in the fight or the game.

General Odierno’s comments on www.army.mil/article/86544/ on August 31, 2012 sum it up best:

“Mental and physical toughness, discipline, team over self and stressing the importance of resilience are fundamental to the culture of both the NFL and the Army. We have the Warrior Ethos reinforced by the Soldier’s Creed.”

Goodell and Odierno are already cooperating with efforts to research, prevent and find treatments for TBI. Each supports new ways to monitor TBI, “including placing special sensors in helmets of both soldiers and players which can detect a possible concussion” after a trauma to the head.

It’s good to know the top guys are in the game. That means this is a fight that we all can win!